Gamescom 2014: How Tearaway Unfolded Can Be the Definitive Version

“In some ways, Tearaway Unfolded can be our definitive version,” says Rex Crowle, the creative lead on the Tearaway series.

And that’s the thing, Tearaway Unfolded on PlayStation isn’t simply a quick port of Media Molecule’s irresistibly charming arts-and-crafts platforming adventure, which originally found a home on PlayStation Vita in 2013.

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It’s something a bit different and more unique. A remake? A remastering? A reboot?

Well, Rex is using the term ‘Remix’, which means it's more than just about sharper graphics and a better framerate (1080p and 60fps is the goal, if you were wondering). So some elements will remain unchanged – the story, central characters, art style – while others, such as the control scheme, will be entirely rethought in order to make the experience really flourish on what is a very different piece of hardware, the PlayStation 4.

I sat down with Rex from Media Molecule, who walked me through some of the major differences and why there were made.

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Undiscovered Country

When I first saw Tearaway running on a PlayStation 4, it was an uncanny experience.

So much was familiar – its vibrant art style and unique animation (there’s a stop-motion feel to the way things move in this world) – but it also felt very different. There was a sense of space and scale that wasn't there in the Vita version, which always felt like a very intimate experience. But how much bigger is Tearaway Unfolded?

“It’s a hard thing to judge,” says Rex. “A lot of people just want me to say a percentage, and you know it’s not really possible to do that. I think anyone who has played the Vita version will still recognise the environments and the journey they’re going on, but just the act of making it work on a big stage meant we had to scale things up.”

This is particularly noticeable in the more hub-like areas, such as Maypole Fields. There’s a sense of verticality that was absent in the original. “We found that any of the hub areas just needed to be 50% bigger to get that sense of scale. Those areas are much larger.” And it’s space that can now be explored, with the Messenger able to hop aboard a paper plane and take to the skies.

While the 'Unfolded’ subtitle is a cute pun, for sure, it really helps in conceptualising what Media Molecule is doing to the original. It’s as if the edges of the world have been pulled back a little, and instead of revealing blank white space, they're stuff with intriguing side notes – new characters and side-challenges to play around with. And as a result, the world feels more alive and bustling, not just bigger.

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You now really feel like you’re going somewhere.”

The Messenger's journey will remain the same – he or she will explore the same environments – but the pacing and flow of that experience will change. “We’re finding each area is taking a fair bit longer to play through,” Rex reveals. “We want to make sure each section introduces itself in a nice way and a has a nice conclusion as well. We’re putting a lot of focus into, say, the Gibbet Hills section at the end of the first third of the game so you don’t just arrive at this mountain. You are having this kind of joyful trudge up through the snow. You now really feel like you’re going somewhere.”

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Tearaway always looked great, with it’s distinctive paper-craft aesthetic, but the power of PlayStation 4 has allowed Media Molecule to remove almost all digital artefacts from its appearance, making the illusion that everything in its world has been constructed from paper and card all the more powerful. Just take a look at the screenshots in the slideshow below:

Tearaway Unfolded

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The higher resolution teases out some wonderful details – the paper depressing underfoot as the Messenger runs, the twitching and curling of a paper trees in the background, the grain. It looks even more stunning and joyful.

Touchy Feely

One of my favourite things about Tearaway is how it enthusiastically embraces all of the weird sensors and gizmos Sony somehow managed to cram into the Vita. Touchscreen, touch panels, cameras – so many games ignore them, but Tearaway used them all in surprising and satisfying ways, such as punching your fingers through into the paper world and manipulating objects.

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Each version of Tearaway is a celebration of the hardware it’s on."

Probably the biggest challenge facing Tearaway Unfolded is rethinking these unique mechanics and making them work, somehow, on PS4.

“Each version of Tearaway is a celebration of the hardware it’s on,” Rex says. “If we made it so that you had to press the Square button to trigger fingers coming through the floor – nobody would make the connections. It would be like this is just a port.

“So for PS4 and DualShock 4 we wanted to have fun with the touchpad, because I don’t think it’s being used that much in games at the moment.. It’s like, ‘Oh brilliant, I can scroll around the map a bit’. But it feels like there’s a huge opportunity to make more of it.”

In one way, the track pad is similar to the touch screen in the original. Press down on it, and it will ping drum skins in the game world, making objects and characters bounce. Not that different.

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Tearaway's world is powered by a logic that makes it even more beguiling.

But stroke a finger across it and a gust of wind, an entirely new god-power, will blow through the world moving objects. The light bar can also be ‘shined’ into the game world, and is being used as the basis for some entirely new puzzles; it can be used to ignite candles and germinate seeds. And if you own a PlayStation Eye there will additional features, like being able to customise the world with photographs and, like in the Vita version, you might be called upon to play a cameo role.

There’s a healthy interplay between adaptation and invention at work throughout Unfolded, but one of the most interesting new mechanics is definitely ‘Thrown Forth’. Tilt the DualShock upwards and the Messenger will ‘throw’ the object they’re holding into the controller. As it travels, it appears as if the object is bursting through the TV into the real world. The light bar will change colour depending on the object tossed, and you’ll be able to hear it rattling around inside through the speaker. But like with a lot of the cute aspects of Tearaway's world it's powered by a logic that makes it even more beguiling.

“It’s a great one for showing how we want to explore the world in the TV and us outside of the TV, and the relationship between these two worlds," explains Rex.

“With the Vita, it was all about a world in your hands that you were directly touching. For Tearaway Unfolded, we’re thinking more about this as a world that is about six-feet away from you and what that means. A lot of the interactions are exploring the distance between the two of you.

“Thrown Forth is a moment where we wanted it to feel like when the object comes out of the game, the game world turns back into a piece of consumer electronics. You actually see the TV as a TV: so we put scan lines on it, a bit of noise and some interference. Meanwhile, the piece of plastic that is in your hands is making sounds, shaking, and sort of coming to life. As you swipe that object or creature back out again, the two worlds swap back. You’re holding a piece of plastic again, and the world on screen comes back to life.”

Why Not Makes Tearaway 2 for PS4?

Tearaway is being entirely rebuilt for the PlayStation 4, stuffed with new ideas and new mechanics, so why not make a fully-fledged sequel developed entirely for the console?

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We can just build on top it and makes things even bigger and better."

“We’d like more players, a different kind of audience, to experience what we’ve already made,” says Rex. “It also means we can go back and have a really nice framework to build on top of instead of starting again completely from scratch and needing to spend a lot of time figuring out the locations and getting them to the same level as the Vita version.

"Because we’ve already got the original as a proof of concept, it means we can just build on top it and makes things even bigger and better.”

Bringing one of the Vita’s very best games to a much bigger audience could turn out to be a very shrewd decision indeed. (Sony proudly announced at Gamescom that its sold 10 million consoles through to consumers.) But for fans of the original and those who will discover Tearaway afresh when it comes to PS4, there can be no more reassuring fact that Rex and his Media Molecule team are at the helm. They understands better than anyone what makes Tearaway special, and what needs to be done in order for it to remain so.